Dance of Roses: Ahatake vs Chiaki
Crimson Bud All was silent. But this silence was soon to be broken by a loud screech. Ahatake Tenno was tending to one of his Phoenixes, who, or so it seemed, had been wounded in an earlier battle, but could not find a sufficient enough source of heat to heal itself. He was dabbing some smoking ointment on the wound, not knowing he was being watched. In the midst of the night, where the birds of ghosts ruled the skies and the insects' melody played across the grassland stage, two cloaked figures were shuffling towards the forest edge. Their hoods covered each of their heads, but their faces and bits of their hair were showing completely. Thanks to orange hair, one of them could be seen better than the other. With a delicate face and enchanting hazel eyes, it could be only be described as a female. She turned her gaze towards her companion, studying him. He seemed to be raising one of his arms and holding it in a ginger manner. "How's your wound, Kooji?" She asked. What she had gotten in reply was a scoff, along with "It'll hold. An explosion that small ain't enough to kill me." It was a statement of a deep tone, concluding that her friend was a male. She put on a rather amused smirk in return. "That's what you always say, you moron. I told you not to stay up so close to those circles. Already deciding to go kamikaze and leave us behind, now?" "Hardly. I only do that on Mondays... they bad-luck the hell out of me--" SCREECH! Immediately, their footsteps stopped, and widened eyes turned upwards, as the screech of what sounded like a pained bird echoed throughout the area. It was a catalyst to their nervous system - they were now on the alert, hands near their kunai as if an enemy would jump out at them any second. But they were discreet about it - ANBU did have to decieve their enemies if they were watching. "I guess the owls aren't the only birds up at this time..." Kooji muttered. "There's a chakra signature coming up in front of us." The female observed, raising her hand to point a finger in the direction. "Let's go!" Quickly, they disappeared into the trees and headed straight for their destination, keeping their chakra masked under the shadows of themselves. Ahatake looked up at the bird's golden eyes. "Alright Sirius, I think that's the best I can do." He said, touching the bird's wounded leg gingerly. "You'll have to take it easy." The bird nodded to show it had understood. Several branches above his position, the ANBU landed themselves on separate branches and eyed the figure closely. It was obvious that by what looked to be a summon, the man was a shinobi. However, the fact that he wasn't wearing a standard headband made it difficult to tell if he had an allegiance or not. At this, Chiaki frowned a bit. "What do you think he's doin' to that bird?" Kooji thought for a moment, before giving his quick-thought response: "Cooking it?" "...." That made the girl give him a mix of an exasperated and annoyed look. "No, damn it. If you could sense chakra, that's obviously a fire bird. There's no cooking to be done on that." The boy, undaunted by her words, shrugged and continued to observe. The bird flapped and landed on Ahatake's shoulder and it made a sound next to his hear. He smiled. "I already know." Ahatake looked up into the trees. "You two can come out now." "He had sensed us...?!" At the sound of his voice, Chiaki and Kooji stared in slight astonishment at the man, before the surprise faded. "...you're awful damn perceptive!" Chiaki called down, frowning slightly at the compliment she had given him. "How'd you know?" Ahatake looked up, and his eyes widened. The girl who had spoken was very pretty. "It wasn't me." He replied. "It was Sirius." He gestured to the bird. "So the fire bird's got better senses than the master... should've figured..." The girl thought, lowering herself. Without hesitation, she allowed herself to descend from the branches and land gracefully onto the ground. She slowly stood up straight, her hazel eyes gazing into Ahatake's for a moment. "Where you from, nin?" She questioned. "You're not wearing the usual headband around your forehead, I see..." "I'm of the Tenno Clan of Konohagakure." Ahatake replied. "I had gotten into a battle not to long ago and my bird was inured, so I had to stop here to tend to it." Chiaki, eyes lifting in a show of absorbing the knowledge, opened her mouth slightly and nodded in acknowledgement. "Ah, I see... how lucky." Raising one hand, she pulled off the hood that enveloped her head to fully reveal her shoulder length orange hair. With the hood off, her expression seemed to be a bit lighter. Tied around her own forehead was the Konoha emblem forehead protector. "We both happen to be ANBU of Konohagkure." At this, Kooji took his own time to jump down from the rafters and land in a crouched position to join Chiaki in looking over the man. Ahatake did not pay much attention to Kooji, but focused his attention of Chiaki. He extended a hand genially. "It's nice to meet you. My name is Ahatake Tenno." "Oh, I know who you are now..." Chiaki allowed herself to grin, reaching her own had in a wide swing to grip Ahatake's hand in a rough, but friendly handshake. "Clan leaders always have this popularity shit goin' around them." "I try not to stand out to much." Ahatake said. "But my sister doesn't let that happen. Always making sure everyone knows who I am. It can get quite annoying." "Too bad for you, eh?" Chiaki teased gently. "Poor bastard like you has to fill out paperwork while we underlings go and do the dirty work. Unless, of course, the higher-ups and elders allow at least a little scrap of a mission..." "I've done quite a few missions." Ahatake replied, smiling. "There isn't much paperwork to do when it comes to our clan, so we are more free than others." He looked at the bird on his shoulder as though implying it was because of the Phoenixes. "Ah... so, I take it you know how to handle yourself in combat." The tone in Chiaki's voice was starting to unnerve Kooji a little, his eyes drifting with uncertainty towards her. He folded his arms across his chest and shifted a little bit. Ahatake grinned. "I take it you want to fight me?" "Ain't that the truth." The revelation made Kooji widen his eyes a little, and Chiaki to step forward. She promptly gripped the front of her cloak and threw it off of her shoulders, revealing the ANBU uniform underneath. He raised his hands up, in protest. "Hey, c'mon, Chiaki. I know it's good to have a little spar now and then, bu--" "Oh, lighten up!" She retorted, looking at him with a mirthful expression. "We're both free, and this'll give me somethin' to do before we return to base. Boss won't mind, right?" Ahatake laughed. "She's got a point you know." That shut him up, although he still held a rather reluctant expression on his face. Chiaki turned back towards her soon-to-be opponent, putting one hand on her hip. "Just don't expect me to go easy on you." She warned. Ahatake cricked his neck. "Let's see what you've got then." He said as Sirius vanished in a burst of flame. "Ladies first of course." "Oh, aren't you sweet.." Chiaki retracted her hand from her hip.... before swinging it up in the air, forward and upwards. Then, three gleams were seen flickering in the moonlight before promptly vanishing. Ahatake sighed and threw his cloak into the air. Better to fight without it. He stood there, as still as a statue, not moving at all. Immediately, three sharp pangs of pain shot through his body consecutively. Through the darkness, three kunai knives had embedded themselves at non-vital points into his arms. They were now stained with his blood, the liquid dripping down onto the grass floor. Chiaki scowled slightly, lowering her arm again in slight puzzlement. "Nice shot." Ahatake said. blood dripping from his mouth. A kunai was at her neck. "But not as nice it could have been." Ahatake said, as the Ahatake Chiaki stabbed faced to black mist. "You're in my world now." He grabbed her by the scruff of her collar and threw her across the plain. His reflexes were fast, after all. As Chiaki took this in, she allowed herself to flip her body backwards in mid-air, landing in a kneeling position before she could fly an inconsiderable distance away. Her narrowed eyes looked up at her opponent quickly, and she stood back up to lunge at him again. She could've been mistaken for a lion with that ferocious speed she displayed, closing the gap very quickly. Ahatake was smiling and then he vanished again, reappearing next to Chiaki. He drew his sword and swung it at her side. Her ANBU reflexes kicked in. Her feet stopping, she twisted herself and stretched out her hand. Not only did she managed to evade the attack on her person, she also caught his attack at the wrist. Within a second, she had balled her hand into a fist and swung upwards in a fierce uppercut. Ahatake's eyes widened and he moved his head out the way to avoid rather permanent damage. He forced his wrist out of her grip and skidded back. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" He inhaled air then exhaled a huge amount of flame. "Smile on THAT..." A smug grin came across the girl's face, even as she felt the heated ball of flames approach her. Crouching down, she propelled herself into the air in order to dodge it, at the same time pulling out six more kunai to launch them at Ahatake. Ahatake bent over into an arc to dodge them and fixed himself back up into a standing position, throwing four shuriken at Chiaki. The woman bent low, barely avoiding the deadly stars as they scraped the top of her hair a little. As she stood up, her fingers seemed to be bent at random angles, though obviously not broken as she was shifting them constantly. Ahatake looked wary. He was getting slightly distracted by the woman's figure and that would soon prove to be his undoing. "Oh, so now you're ogling me?" Apparently, this had not gone by unnoticed by the woman, who put on an ever so sly smile on her countenance. "I didn't know you had such tastes in me..." She said in a slightly devilish manner. "I'm almost flattered, ya perv..." Ahatake look slightly flustered. "I'm..I'm sorry..I didn't mean.." His voice trailed off. "But not quite!" Then, as abrupt as a flash of lightning, her smile faded into one of insanity, eyes gleaming with the obvious light of bloodlust. Raising her hands up, she closed her fingers and yanked back. As if an invisible rope had wrapped itself around him, her opponent was jerked and slammed onto his back. His body was sent flying away when Chiaki tugged quickly and tossed her hand aside. The motion caused him to collide head-long into a tree, breaking through it with the immense force. Ahatake got up rubbing his head. "It seems you do have some power." He said, having regained his composure. "Then let me show you a jutsu that's unique to me." He formed the sign of the tiger. "Petal Release: Dance of Roses." He muttered and fluttering rose petals began to encircle him., looking like floating droplet's of blood. "This is my very own chakra nature and my very own jutsu." Blood Petals Petals? Despite the possible danger, Chiaki couldn't help but let out an entertained laugh. "Are you kidding me?! A bunch of flowers is your chakra nature?!" She mocked. "For a supposed clan leader, that makes you look very bad, you know that?" Ahatake smiled. "I get that a lot." He said, his face as red as his roses. "But they quickly change their mind when they see what it can do." The petals began to swirl and wrapped around Ahatake's sword. "This technique is very useful, very similar as well to the Third Kazekage's Iron Sand, without the Poison." Chiaki's eyes fell on the petals wrapped around the Tenno's weapon, now slightly wary of this new information. Immediately, she could take on what the petals could do in their current state: enhancement of his cutting power and the enabling of possible long-range attacks. Now, it was going to be a lot tougher to combat, and she could easily assume she would be pushed to the defensive again. It was time to improvise. Slowly, she shifted herself into a defensive stance and readied herself. Ahatake twirled the blade and a swirl of red was visible. He thrust his blade out and the petals extended into a long sword like shape speeding towards Chikai with the intent of spearing her. Immediately, she sprang into action. Her body took evasive manuevers and fell back, away from the ferocious buds. She attempted to keep both Ahatake and the projectiles in her field of vision as she moved, in order to not allow herself to get caught off-guard. Ahatake grinned and the extended blade scattered completely into a mass of petals resembling a swarm of angry red bees. "You can't keep moving that fast!" He said as the petals raced at her, tearing down tress that were in the way. "Damn it!!" Dipping her hand into a kunai pouch, she pulled one that had an explosive tag wrapped around the hilt. She twisted herself to turn around and face the death swarm that was so ready to tear her apart. She once again flicked her wrist to toss it directly towards the center. If she was right, the explosion would delay the petals and buy her some time to dish out an attack. Being at range disadvantage, she could only hope for such to happen. The explosion caused the petals to crumble and fall to the ground. Ahatake, despite having his weapons destroyed, was smiling. "Nice tactic." He spun a few more seals, and created a jet of fire that he manipulated into a giant spiraling pillar that circled around Chiaki, preventing her from moving any farther. "Not so bad yourself, there!" Chiaki exclaimed, raising her arms up to her face in a defensive position even as the heat singed her skin. The intensity was causing her to sweat lightly. Ahatake smiled. His jumped high above the pillar his hand coated in flames. "You'd better move!" He said. "NIGHT PHOENIX!" He fell down the fire enveloping his body. Despite his words, Chiaki found herself in an immediate standstill. Her eyes widened in shock, in a state of helplessness as the Tenno descended upon her. She couldn't move immediately, for the pillar of fire was still standing in her way and narrowing Ahatake's path straight down to her. She had to think quickly... BOOM! Ahatake's fist collided with the ground and made a giant crater which disrupted his pillar of fire. "Where did she go?" Ahatake muttered, looking around. She had taken to the shadows once more, hiding in what was left of the trees. She appeared to be simply sitting down and recuperating her breath, the near-death experience obviously haven taken its toll on her. With her chakra masked, she was free to remain where she was... at least, for a moment. Ahatake sighed. "I didn't want to use this jutsu..but if you're hiding it'll flush you out." Ahatake formed very quick hand seals and a giant triangle formed around half of the forest. "Sealing Technique: Triangle Seal!" The white triangle began to glow. That was all it took for the girl to allow her alertness to take over again, before she was forcibly sent in a reverse devildrop towards the sky. She couldn't even allow herself to be surprised, for the involuntary catapult had acted too quickly. Now, ejected from her hiding place, she was now exposed to Ahatake's vision once more. Ahatake watched as she was shot into the air. "I wonder if she's going to be alright." For a moment, she hung, suspended at point zero before beginning her descent. Even as the wind rippled against her face, she wore a comically mortified expression on her face, complete with a twitching smile and blank eyes. "Oh, crap... what a horrible way to die...!" However, her thoughts wouldn't come true. Before she could finally hit the ground, a set of arms reached out and caught her in an act of effortlessness. Her descent was much softer, and her eyes widened in surprise to find she didn't have any of her bones broken. She looked up into Kooji's rather annoyed face. "Nice one, klutz." He said bluntly. "Real smart, too..." "Shut up!" Indignantly, she rose one of her elbows up and struck him in the face to force him back, ignoring the yelp of pain that came from his mouth. She stood up and dusted herself off - a rather huffing appearance. "I could've caught myself, I didn't need your help!" She grumbled. "You're....welcome...." Ahatake laughed. "I would hate to be him at this very moment." "Oh, I wouldn't be laughing if I were you..." That's when Chiaki turned to him and put herself into a kneeling position, raising a hand up with her all fingers pointing in his general direction. "You haven't had enough yet?" Ahatake asked, a smile on his face. "'Course not." "Seems you like to fight." Ahatake said, his smile fading only slightly. "Let's not over do it. I don't want to draw him out." He finished the sentence gravely as he set into a fighting stance. "Eh?" Despite his graveness, Chiaki only chuckled as she too settled into her own stance. "Who's he?" "You'll see if this goes to far." Ahatake said and he closed teh distance between himself and her in an instant and pressed his hand to her stomach sending her quite a ways back. The expression of her face could hardly be seen, but her body seemed to have gone limp, even as the blow slammed into her gut. Yet, as she raised her head, she still held the fiery defiance in her irises, along with the toothy scowl that emphasized her resolve. A kunai having slipped from her hand, she pulled it out and tossed it with bullet speed. Ahatake made a quick hand sign and rose petals came and blocked the Kunai, and Ahatake sent an explosive Kunai at Chiaki. Having caught herself to the ground, the female thrust herself in a front flip, the kunai whizzing under and past her harmlessly. Then, she moved forward before it could catch her in its destructive radius. In what seemed like a zealous move, she once again moved towards Ahatake, another kunai having been yanked out from her pouch. Ahatake raised his sword and swung it down at her. The next move she made was unexpected. Instead of blocking with the kunai, she put on a smirk, bent low, dropped the knife to the ground, and reached out with open hands to catch the sharp metal of the blade. Her palms glowed with her chakra, acting as protection from the blade's cutting edge. Then, in less than a second, she had pushed again, forcing the butt of Ahatake's hilt right into the Adam's Apple of his throat. Ahatake stood there quite limp, blood pouring from the wound. Immobilized? Unconcious? Dead? With his stance, Chiaki couldn't make anything of his status. Still, with the way he was, she could've easily landed a killing blow. A cautious hand reached out and lay her palm on the man's chest. He was so...warm. The woman nearly flushed as she felt his heart beat, steady and in a rhythmic beat. If she moved quickly enough, could she tear it out? Could she end his life before he acted? Under normal circumstances, she would've easily done so with ruthlessness and pleasure. But he was a comrade. He wasn't destined to die under her fingers. When she had enough, she immediately leaped back a considerable distance and readied herself. A hand reached up and ripped the blade out carelessly. Ahatake had a smile on his face. "I'm not..just dead yet." He said, and a there was a another shriek and Sirius the Phoenix appeared in a flash of flame. It turned to Ahatake and a tear fell from it's face onto his wound and the wound healed. Ahatake forced himself to sit up. "Damn that hurt." He said, rubbing his neck. "Thanks Sirius." He turned to Chiaki, and shockingly enough, he was still smiling. Chiaki gave a studious look in his direction, her eyes slightly narrowed. "That wasn't meant to kill you... only for the pain to knock you unconscious when you inhaled again. For you to still be talking is quite the feat." Ahatake smiled. "A serious wound to the neck can kill someone." Ahatake took off his white headband and waved it. "I'm done." He said. "It was fun, but I'm about done. Used to many large techniques." Chiaki couldn't help but smirk in amusement, even as she folded her arms across her chest. "Oh, you didn't think an ANBU like me would not know the human anatomy?" She said tauntingly. "I know when to restrain myself." "Of course." Ahatake replied. "I have never been an ANBU so I wouldn't know." He looked a little closer at her and saw a few cuts and bruises on her, that he cause. "Sirius." The bird spread it's wings and flew over her, scattering it's feathers and healing her wounds. "Since yours were minor, the tears were not necessary." "Oh, aren't you a gentleman!" The woman declared, her smirk changing into a smile. Ahatake smiled. "I try." He stood up, tying the headband back around his head. "I have a request and I'd be happy if you agreed." "Oh? What a coincidence..." Still smiling, Chiaki allowed herself to close one of her eyes and look at the man with the other. "I have a request of my own. Could we be thinking the same, now?" "We'll see." Ahatake said. "Would you consider going out with me sometime?" "Ah! So glad to see we are!" If anything, the girl's eyes took the upside-down U shape, and her grin widened. "When would be a good time?" She asked, not the slightest hint of nervousness or embarrassment in her tone. Ahatake grinned as well. He pulled out an fire-orange book and flipped through a few pages. "Whenever you like it seems." He said. "I'm free from clan priorities for the next two months." "Well, how about sometime tomorrow? It'll give us time for preparation..." Ahatake's grin grew wider. "Alright, that's fine with me." Sirius the Phoenix began to flap it's large wings. "I'll see you tomorrow then." Ahatake and the bird vanished in a flash of bright orange flame, leaving only Chiaki and Kooji there. It was then that Chiaki turned, much to her surprise and annoyance, an amused Kooji who was leaning against the tree with his arms folded across his chest. "...what're you looking at?" She asked evenly, rolling her eyes. "Oh, nothing, nothing, my dear Chiaki-chan..." He replied innocently, turning back around and starting to walk off. "I just didn't know birds had tastes in wolves..." "Wha... HEY! What's that supposed to mean, you--?!" And Chiaki followed a laughing Kooji briskly, heading back towards the direction of their houses. The End